Lake Vermilion — A Scenic Angling Paradise

Minnesota’s Lake Vermilion is known as the “Lake of Red Sunsets” – 40,000 acres or picturesque waters dotted with nearly 400 islands and 1200 miles of shoreline. It stretches 40 miles across Minnesota’s Arrowhead Region, situated between the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Superior National Forest near the towns of Orr, Cook, and Tower, Minnesota.

Vermilion has been a favorite with pleasure-seekers for over a century. In the 1940s, the National Geographic Society declared Lake Vermilion one of the top ten most scenic lakes in the United States — and it still is today.

Yes, Vermilion offers anglers a truly “up north” experience, where you’d be hard-pressed to find more beauty and more available fish species in one lake.

What’s the saying? Big waters, big fish? That’s very much the case with Lake Vermilion, which produces plus-size everything.

That includes panfish, largemouth bass, bruiser smallies, pike, trophy muskies, and lots of walleyes. With a strong forage base in the form of tulibees, plentiful young-of-the-year fish, and various minnow types, fish are booming across all year classes.

You couldn’t have designed a better walleye lake if you tried. It’s got all the right stuff: rock, weeds, sand, gravel, and the wind-and-water movement required for successful spawns each year.

Biologists praise Vermilion’s hearty walleye genetics, and collect walleye eggs each spring to stock many of Minnesota’s other fisheries – as well supplement Vermilion’s own strong natural reproduction.

The best way to catch Vermilion ‘eyes? It’s set-up for about any way you want to: rigging, jigging, pitching, trolling, Jig Rappin’… and one of our favorites: slip-bobbering on glass-still waters as the scarlet sun drops below the horizon.

While your chances are good at a new personal best, Vermilion keeps supplying visiting anglers with plenty of “eater”-size fish, too, which means no trip is complete without a classic shore lunch… or two.

And then there’s bass — and lots of ‘em. Bee-line to the lake’s rock reefs and weedbeds and you’re sure to find as much action as you can handle.

For fans of big toothy critters, Vermilion’s the place for everything from bucktails to topwaters to giant pieces of plastic and ample opportunities for swinging big fluff on a fly rod, too.

It’d be hard to fish every potentially fish-holding point, rock pile, and weed bed in a lifetime.

A classic and timeless “up north” experience without too much time on the road, Lake Vermilion offers lots of water to explore – and explosive, multi-species action not to be missed.